GSXftw
10+ Year Contributor
- 381
- 78
- Dec 16, 2009
-
Medford,
Oregon
So Ive had this car for the last 9 years finally decided to put it out to the world. I AM VERY PROUD of how good my DSM has been to me. This car has impressed the hell out of everyone including me, and for everyone who says DSMs break all the time, are unreliable, or need totally redone to run decent, THEY SHOULD MEET MY CAR. Id like to start by saying I couldnt do any of this without my dad, and although Ive done most of the mods myself, my dad has always been there to point me in the right direction and of course generously lend his shop for all those late nights.
So I bought it in Stockton, CA, Was mostly stock, unmolested and taken pretty good care of. All work was done by dealerships or reputable shops and had reciepts, the mods I can see are KYB GR2 struts, an aftermarket front sway bar on the A arms, and restrictor taken out of the BCS.
It had 167k, I paid a bit too much for it at $2700, but I was young and it had to be mine, and it was on payments which helped.
So I trailered it home, which was $200 alone, and the problem sorting started . First it was apparent the alternator was bad, which obviously the voltage regulator went bad cause there were 8 (Yes EIGHT) blown out bulbs, an array of relays, stock stereo unit was fried, ect. it needed a battery, I changed the fuel filter, the tires were dangerously cracked/aged, So I found some 300zx rims with good tires. Also a retard deer T-boned me 3 months owning it as you can see, his head hit the fender, then he spun around and his ass put the dent in the door. (If you havent heard the Louis CK bit about the retard deer you must listen)
So after this I could drive it without white knuckles, but only under light throttle. As soon as it went into boost it would buck like hell. After much troubleshooting the culprit was the MAF, only way I could feel sweet sweet boost was in limp in mode and getting 10 MPG. So I made an order for my first upgrades, a GM MAFT, 3.5" MAF, K&N, Boost gauge/NB Airfuel gauge. This way it was DD'able and mods were voluntary
It had a battery draw and would need jumped if it sat more than 2 days. After searching I realized it was the ECU (which we'll get to later.) It stayed powered on with key off so I just hooked up a kill switch. Next came a water pump/timing/balance shaft belts, a catless 3" turboback exhaust, with a dynomax muffler, which took boost from 10-12, then got a MBC and put it to "the fence" at 15-16 psi. I upgraded to 1Gb brakes, new front half shafts, and since the car was absolutely gutless unless the oil thinned out I upgraded to 3g lifters. I ran it this way for YEARS
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI1czcErhBw[/ame]
and just replaced what broke-radiator, starter, AC recharge. Then my ECU started acting up- the O2 readings (which I could moniter from the NB fuel gauge) was going haywire/cutting out, it quit streaming if Id hook it up to a scanner, and finally when I'd key on the CEL quit coming on. I was smart enough to know what was going on here, and after seeing how expensive ECUs were I went the band aid fix route and ordered the capacitors and carefully soldered them in. This bought me another year before the ECU went bad. That is TO THIS DAY THE ONLY TIME THE CAR HAS LEFT ME STRANDED. After seeing I didnt have an EPROM and that the board was eaten I ordered a brand new socketed EPROM ecu from motoguys garage.
I ran the car at the track and Best it did was a 14.20@95 with a 1.9 60 ft
Clutch liked to slip so did the ebay special F1 racing stage 2 kevlar on the stock FW (This clutch was awesome for this power level BTW gave me 3.5 years of launching) and after missing a shift and going from 3-2 instead of a 3-4, and hitting 8500 RPM I got the solid shift bushings and short shifter.
I picked up a 94 GS no engine for $150. This thing was very clean and gave me a lot of goodies
I got the seats, steering wheel, master/slave cylinder, shorter shift knob, and all necessary body parts for a 1Gb conversion. It was even the same color. After I was done stripping it went to the crusher and gave me $150, FREE PARTS are cool!!!
So at this point I was a little confused... I had a Supra I was building, a 12 sec Camaro, an Accord to DD, the Eclipse seemed like the odd man out, and knowing the next steps for power were fuel, turbo, tuning, they seemed intimidating and I didnt wanna go there, so I put the DSM up for sale for $3000 with 200k on the clock since it was just sitting. I gave a couple test drives, and after people asking "Whats that boost gauge do?" I realized nobody in this town was gonna appreciate this car or mods thus far like I would... so I sold the Honda instead which is always easy, people love their Hondas, DSMs are a special taste
So after a couple grand in Honda cash, and a couple more grand in tax $, I gave the car some much needed attention (you made it to the fun part thanks for hangin in there) it has been my DD since and every mod has been a 'weekend mod'
since I was smart enough to look on tuners at this point I just started goin down the upgrade path... I did all the free mods, which included rebuilding the TB and fixing any other boost leaks. I replaced the windshield (Holy shit NEVER EVER EVER do this job yourself, pay the xtra $30 and have it done)
Front/rear strut bars, new tires, AEM wideband, new battery
Having a WB at this point I was surprised to see the AFR was dead on in the high 10s with the MAFT zero'd out like I had been running for years. So then came a 2g exhaust mani which I ported to 7cm
Then I got tired of looking at all those 94 Eclipse panels and finally decided to tackle the 1Gb conversion. For all the people afraid of this just know I did this in one late ass night. Drove in 5pm when the shop closes for business with pop up headlights, rolled out 4am all 1Gb'd out! (BTW I did the rear bumper the previous night as you can see)
The headlights were brighter, but still not to my liking.... in comes the HID kits! I bought 2 kits for lows and highs, and wired it so that highs/lows are both on at high beams. Theyre GRRRRREAT!
Also ordered ECMlink V3 LITE and finally made use of the socketed ECU I had been running for years, I used this in conjunction with the MAFT and the GM maf still
Took off the O2 housing and turbo to port them
I realized the stock 14b was finished
No wonder it spools like shit!! I actually had to put this busted thing back on to make it home for the night, but I ordered a big16g off ebay that night. Yes ebay, I just needed something to get me by for a while. Also ordered a CXracing FMIC and piping kit
Dont run these intercoolers!!! ....but more about that later
So I knew ahead of time these turbos were known to creep, so I ported it before it went on
I also ditched the WGA and welded up a Garrett actuator to give more throw and open the flapper all the way. These mods and the fact it came with the bigger 34mm flapper, it still would creep to 15psi. Perfect! so running this turbo as low as it could go, was still as high as I could go with the stock fuel system and was hitting mid 90% IDC.
The car sat too high
So It saw the torch
So I bought it in Stockton, CA, Was mostly stock, unmolested and taken pretty good care of. All work was done by dealerships or reputable shops and had reciepts, the mods I can see are KYB GR2 struts, an aftermarket front sway bar on the A arms, and restrictor taken out of the BCS.
It had 167k, I paid a bit too much for it at $2700, but I was young and it had to be mine, and it was on payments which helped.
So I trailered it home, which was $200 alone, and the problem sorting started . First it was apparent the alternator was bad, which obviously the voltage regulator went bad cause there were 8 (Yes EIGHT) blown out bulbs, an array of relays, stock stereo unit was fried, ect. it needed a battery, I changed the fuel filter, the tires were dangerously cracked/aged, So I found some 300zx rims with good tires. Also a retard deer T-boned me 3 months owning it as you can see, his head hit the fender, then he spun around and his ass put the dent in the door. (If you havent heard the Louis CK bit about the retard deer you must listen)
So after this I could drive it without white knuckles, but only under light throttle. As soon as it went into boost it would buck like hell. After much troubleshooting the culprit was the MAF, only way I could feel sweet sweet boost was in limp in mode and getting 10 MPG. So I made an order for my first upgrades, a GM MAFT, 3.5" MAF, K&N, Boost gauge/NB Airfuel gauge. This way it was DD'able and mods were voluntary
It had a battery draw and would need jumped if it sat more than 2 days. After searching I realized it was the ECU (which we'll get to later.) It stayed powered on with key off so I just hooked up a kill switch. Next came a water pump/timing/balance shaft belts, a catless 3" turboback exhaust, with a dynomax muffler, which took boost from 10-12, then got a MBC and put it to "the fence" at 15-16 psi. I upgraded to 1Gb brakes, new front half shafts, and since the car was absolutely gutless unless the oil thinned out I upgraded to 3g lifters. I ran it this way for YEARS
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI1czcErhBw[/ame]
and just replaced what broke-radiator, starter, AC recharge. Then my ECU started acting up- the O2 readings (which I could moniter from the NB fuel gauge) was going haywire/cutting out, it quit streaming if Id hook it up to a scanner, and finally when I'd key on the CEL quit coming on. I was smart enough to know what was going on here, and after seeing how expensive ECUs were I went the band aid fix route and ordered the capacitors and carefully soldered them in. This bought me another year before the ECU went bad. That is TO THIS DAY THE ONLY TIME THE CAR HAS LEFT ME STRANDED. After seeing I didnt have an EPROM and that the board was eaten I ordered a brand new socketed EPROM ecu from motoguys garage.
I ran the car at the track and Best it did was a 14.20@95 with a 1.9 60 ft
Clutch liked to slip so did the ebay special F1 racing stage 2 kevlar on the stock FW (This clutch was awesome for this power level BTW gave me 3.5 years of launching) and after missing a shift and going from 3-2 instead of a 3-4, and hitting 8500 RPM I got the solid shift bushings and short shifter.
I picked up a 94 GS no engine for $150. This thing was very clean and gave me a lot of goodies
I got the seats, steering wheel, master/slave cylinder, shorter shift knob, and all necessary body parts for a 1Gb conversion. It was even the same color. After I was done stripping it went to the crusher and gave me $150, FREE PARTS are cool!!!
So at this point I was a little confused... I had a Supra I was building, a 12 sec Camaro, an Accord to DD, the Eclipse seemed like the odd man out, and knowing the next steps for power were fuel, turbo, tuning, they seemed intimidating and I didnt wanna go there, so I put the DSM up for sale for $3000 with 200k on the clock since it was just sitting. I gave a couple test drives, and after people asking "Whats that boost gauge do?" I realized nobody in this town was gonna appreciate this car or mods thus far like I would... so I sold the Honda instead which is always easy, people love their Hondas, DSMs are a special taste
So after a couple grand in Honda cash, and a couple more grand in tax $, I gave the car some much needed attention (you made it to the fun part thanks for hangin in there) it has been my DD since and every mod has been a 'weekend mod'
since I was smart enough to look on tuners at this point I just started goin down the upgrade path... I did all the free mods, which included rebuilding the TB and fixing any other boost leaks. I replaced the windshield (Holy shit NEVER EVER EVER do this job yourself, pay the xtra $30 and have it done)
Front/rear strut bars, new tires, AEM wideband, new battery
Having a WB at this point I was surprised to see the AFR was dead on in the high 10s with the MAFT zero'd out like I had been running for years. So then came a 2g exhaust mani which I ported to 7cm
Then I got tired of looking at all those 94 Eclipse panels and finally decided to tackle the 1Gb conversion. For all the people afraid of this just know I did this in one late ass night. Drove in 5pm when the shop closes for business with pop up headlights, rolled out 4am all 1Gb'd out! (BTW I did the rear bumper the previous night as you can see)
The headlights were brighter, but still not to my liking.... in comes the HID kits! I bought 2 kits for lows and highs, and wired it so that highs/lows are both on at high beams. Theyre GRRRRREAT!
Also ordered ECMlink V3 LITE and finally made use of the socketed ECU I had been running for years, I used this in conjunction with the MAFT and the GM maf still
Took off the O2 housing and turbo to port them
I realized the stock 14b was finished
No wonder it spools like shit!! I actually had to put this busted thing back on to make it home for the night, but I ordered a big16g off ebay that night. Yes ebay, I just needed something to get me by for a while. Also ordered a CXracing FMIC and piping kit
Dont run these intercoolers!!! ....but more about that later
So I knew ahead of time these turbos were known to creep, so I ported it before it went on
I also ditched the WGA and welded up a Garrett actuator to give more throw and open the flapper all the way. These mods and the fact it came with the bigger 34mm flapper, it still would creep to 15psi. Perfect! so running this turbo as low as it could go, was still as high as I could go with the stock fuel system and was hitting mid 90% IDC.
The car sat too high
So It saw the torch
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